Partial rendering for a model with nested attributes in another model
I have a rails app that simulates a house. house
contains rooms
, and numbers have nested attributes for light
and small_appliance
. I have a controller calculator
that how end users will access the application.
My problem is that I cannot get the partial add rooms
to render and submit correctly from calculator
. The start page allows the user to enter house
information that is saved with save_house
when the submit button is pressed. It also redirects the user to a page add_rooms
where they can add rooms to the house.
add_rooms
is displayed correctly, but when I click the submit button I get this error:
RuntimeError in Calculator#add_room
Showing app/views/calculator/add_rooms.html.erb where line #2 raised:
Called id for nil, which would mistakenly be 4 -- if you really wanted the id of nil, use object_id
Extracted source (around line #2):
1: <div id="addRooms">
2: <p>House id is <%= @house.id %></p>
3:
4: <h3>Your rooms:</h3>
5: <% if @house.rooms %>
RAILS_ROOT: C:/Users/ryan/Downloads/react
Application Trace | Framework Trace | Full Trace
C:/Users/ryan/Downloads/react/app/views/calculator/add_rooms.html.erb:2:in `_run_erb_app47views47calculator47add_rooms46html46erb'
C:/Users/ryan/Downloads/react/app/controllers/calculator_controller.rb:36:in `add_room'
C:/Users/ryan/Downloads/react/app/controllers/calculator_controller.rb:33:in `add_room'
This is strange to me because when it add_rooms
first renders, it shows house_id
. I don't understand why it is not submitted after the form is submitted.
Here's the code:
app / models / room.rb
class Room < ActiveRecord::Base
# schema { name:string, house_id:integer }
belongs_to :house
has_many :lights, :dependent => :destroy
has_many :small_appliances, :dependent => :destroy
validates_presence_of :name
accepts_nested_attributes_for :lights, :reject_if => lambda { |a| a.values.all?(&:blank?) }, :allow_destroy => true
accepts_nested_attributes_for :small_appliances, :reject_if => lambda { |a| a.values.all?(&:blank?) }, :allow_destroy => true
end
app / models / house.rb
class House < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :rooms
# validation code not included
def add_room(room)
rooms << room
end
end
app / controllers / calculator_controller.rb
class CalculatorController < ApplicationController
def index
end
def save_house
@house = House.new(params[:house])
respond_to do |format|
if @house.save
format.html { render :action => 'add_rooms', :id => @house }
format.xml { render :xml => @house, :status => :created, :location => @house }
else
format.html { render :action => 'index' }
format.xml { render :xml => @house.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end
def add_rooms
@house = House.find(params[:id])
@rooms = Room.find_by_house_id(@house.id)
rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
logger.error("Attempt to access invalid house #{params[:id]}")
flash[:notice] = "You must create a house before adding rooms"
redirect_to :action => 'index'
end
def add_room
@room = Room.new(params[:room])
@house = @room.house
respond_to do |format|
if @room.save
flash[:notice] = "Room \"#...@room.name}\" was successfully added."
format.html { render :action => 'add_rooms' }
format.xml { render :xml => @room, :status => :created, :location => @room }
else
format.html { render :action => 'add_rooms' }
format.xml { render :xml => @room.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
logger.error("Attempt to access invalid house #{params[:id]}")
flash[:notice] = "You must create a house before adding a room"
redirect_to :action => 'index'
end
def report
flash[:notice] = nil
@house = House.find(params[:id])
@rooms = Room.find_by_house_id(@house.id)
rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
logger.error("Attempt to access invalid house #{params[:id]}")
flash[:notice] = "You must create a house before generating a report"
redirect_to :action => 'index'
end
end
app / views / calculator / add_rooms.html.erb
<div id="addRooms">
<p>House id is <%= @house.id %></p>
<h3>Your rooms:</h3>
<% if @house.rooms %>
<ul>
<% for room in @house.rooms %>
<li>
<%= h room.name %> has <%= h room.number_of_bulbs %>
<%= h room.wattage_of_bulbs %> watt bulbs, in use for
<%= h room.usage_hours %> hours per day.
</li>
<% end %>
</ul>
<% else %>
<p>You have not added any rooms yet</p>
<% end %>
<%= render :partial => 'rooms/room_form' %>
<br />
</div>
<%= button_to "Continue to report", :action => "report", :id => @house %>
app / views / numbers / _room_
form.html.erb
<% form_for :room, @house.rooms.build, :url => { :action => :add_room } do |form| %>
<%= form.error_messages %>
<p>
<%= form.label :name %><br />
<%= form.text_field :name %>
</p>
<h3>Lights</h3>
<% form.object.lights.build if form.object.lights.empty? %>
<% form.fields_for :lights do |light_form| %>
<%= render :partial => "light", :locals => { :form => light_form } %>
<% end %>
<p class="addLink"><%= add_child_link "[+] Add new light", form, :lights %></p>
<h3>Small Appliances</h3>
<% form.object.small_appliances.build if form.object.small_appliances.empty? %>
<% form.fields_for :small_appliances do |sm_appl_form| %>
<%= render :partial => "small_appliance", :locals => { :form => sm_appl_form } %>
<% end %>
<p class="addLink"><%= add_child_link "[+] Add new small appliance", form, :small_appliances %></p>
<p><%= form.submit "Submit" %></p>
<% end %>
application_helper.rb
module ApplicationHelper
def remove_child_link(name, form)
form.hidden_field(:_delete) + link_to_function(name, "remove_fields(this)")
end
def add_child_link(name, form, method)
fields = new_child_fields(form, method)
link_to_function(name, h("insert_fields(this, \"#{method}\", \"#{escape_javascript(fields)}\")"))
end
def new_child_fields(form_builder, method, options = {})
options[:object] ||= form_builder.object.class.reflect_on_association(method).klass.new
options[:partial] ||= method.to_s.singularize
options[:form_builder_local] ||= :form
form_builder.fields_for(method, options[:object], :child_index => "new_#{method}") do |form|
render(:partial => options[:partial], :locals => { options[:form_builder_local] => form })
end
end
end
Thanks
Ryan
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Out of curiosity, why not take home nested attributes for rooms. This will simplify your controller code as adding many rooms, lights and small devices is as easy as doing @ house.update_attributes (params [: house]). However, this is not an answer that helps, as you still have your current problems if you made changes.
Your first error comes from the first line app / views / calculator / _room_form.html.erb
<% form_for :room, :url => { :action => :add_room, :id => @house } do |form| %>
You are not giving the form_for object, so the new_child_fields method called by add_child_link tries to call reflection_on_association on the Nil class.
The solution changes the line to
<% form_for :room, @house.rooms.build, :url => { :action => :add_room } do |form| %>
This allows you to simplify your controller, because the room associated with the house is already being passed to it.
def add_room
@room = Room.new(params[:room])
@house = @room.house
respond_to do |format|
if @room.save
flash[:notice] = "Room \"#...@room.name}\" was successfully added."
format.html { render :action => 'add_rooms' }
format.xml { render :xml => @room, :status => :created, :location => @room }
else
format.html { render :action => 'add_rooms' }
format.xml { render :xml => @room.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
logger.error("Attempt to access invalid house #{params[:id]}")
flash[:notice] = "You must create a house before adding a room"
redirect_to :action => 'index'
end
I believe your second mistake is the same problem. However, because you are calling access_many accessor instead of generating null, you are passing in an empty array, which explains the difference in error messages. Again, the solution is to create a lightweight and small fixture before rendering, if it doesn't already exist.
<h3>Lights</h3>
<% form.object.lights.build if form.object.lights.empty? %>
<% form.fields_for :lights do |light_form| %>
<%= render :partial => 'rooms/light', :locals => { :form => light_form } %>
<% end %>
<p class="addLink"><%= add_child_link "[+] Add new light", form, :lights %></p>
<h3>Small Appliances</h3>
<% form.object.small_appliances.build if form.object.small_appliances.empty? %>
<% form.fields_for :small_appliances do |sm_appl_form| %>
<%= render :partial => 'rooms/small_appliance', :locals => { :form => sm_appl_form } %>
<% end %>
A new error comes from this:
def new_child_fields(form_builder, method, options = {})
options[:object] ||= form_builder.object.class.reflect_on_association(method).klass.new
# specifically this line.
options[:partial] ||= method.to_s.singularize
options[:form_builder_local] ||= :form
form_builder.fields_for(method, options[:object], :child_index => "new_#{method}") do |form|
render(:partial => options[:partial], :locals => { options[:form_builder_local] => form })
end
end
new_child_fields assumes the llight particle is in the app / views / calculators folder
The solution is to either move the light particles and small_appliances to this folder, or change the helper methods to accept a partial option.
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